What Sales Executives Worry About
What Sales Executives Worry About
1. Your sales team is doing a great job of chasing new business. But your existing customers are getting shortchanged in the process and your competitors are starting to chip away at your installed base. Where are the opportunities to serve your customers and keep them saying, “Thank you!” to you?
2. Ask any sales person what his or her biggest problem is, and chances are they’ll tell you they don’t have enough leads. Yet mention this to their sales managers and you are likely to hear something like: “I don’t understand it. I spend a fortune generating leads for my sales people. I get tons of leads for them. If only I could get them to follow up on them while they still might be hot.”
3. You just spent a lot of time and money to attend a trade show. And you’ve come back with a fistful of leads. So how come they’re not turning into business and producing a return on your investment in trade shows?
4. Your top sales person has just told you he wants you to make a sales call on the chief executive of his biggest account. What do you need to know before you go on the call? How should the call be structured? How do you exit the call without taking over ownership of the account?
5. You’re finding it harder and harder to locate and hire good sales people. And maybe the ones you hire from competitors just don’t fit into your culture. If only you knew how to spot the potential sales star who is already working for you in some other area.
6. You’re finding it more expensive than ever to locate good sales candidates. Here are some places to look that you might not have thought of.
7. You’ve worked hard to become a top sales executive. But nobody ever gives you training on how to act the part. Here are some tips than can help you be highly effective.
8. Your sales people have been through all the standard sales training, but they’re still having trouble moving the sales process forward and getting the order in their largest accounts. What else do they need to know to succeed in strategic selling situations?
9. You make sales commitments to your management each month based on the forecasts you sales people give you. How do you make sure they reflect reality and that your commitment will happen?
10. You know how to get to the key decision-makers among your prospects and customers. But your sales people are having trouble doing it and are trapped at lower levels. How do you help them to be seen as equals by people who are much higher up in their companies than your sales people are in yours?
11. You’ve got a great value proposition to convey, but you’re having trouble getting past gatekeepers to decision-makers. How do you make these people your allies rather than your adversaries?
12. You’ve devised what you think is a great comp plan for your sales people. But somehow it just isn’t working. What could be wrong? How do you fix it? And how do you use your comp plan as a coaching tool to encourage top performance?